Hi!

 

I’m Chef Marnee

 

My name is Marnee Birnbaum and I am the founder and Owner of Taste Budds Cooking School.

I have spent my whole life with a love of cooking and educating children and have been teaching since I was 15. After graduating from The University of Western Ontario in 2009 with a degree in Sociology, I found myself stuck in the same position as many newly graduated students – “I don’t know what I want to do with my life.”

I worked for a year as a PSW helping a wonderful little girl with Cerebral Palsy. With a love of cooking and still unable to decide my future, I enrolled myself in Culinary School at George Brown College. After two years, in 2012, I graduated with honors from the George Brown Culinary Management Program.

I spent the next four years working at various restaurants and daycare centres. Although I loved my jobs, I felt it was time for me to branch out and finally open my own business. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I knew that owning my own company would be the right choice for me. However, I needed to find a way of combining my love of cooking with my passion to teach children.

In 2016, I founded Taste Budds Cooking School for Kids. Since then, Taste Budds has been teaching children in lunchtime and afterschool cooking classes throughout various schools in the GTA. We offer in school field trips as well as birthday parties and private classes. I believe that it is important for children to learn life skills at a young age. As such, my classes also instruct them on time management, math skills, leadership, kitchen safety and self confidence.

With COVID and the current new way of life, Taste Budds has moved to virtual classes and innovative birthday parties. As schools are no longer able to offer lunchtime programs, Taste Budds will now be taking orders for meals delivered right to your home! I feel so lucky that I get to do exactly what I love to do, and I look forward to meeting so many of you soon!